


With the Tide

by Lassarina



Category: Lost Odyssey
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-28
Updated: 2017-01-28
Packaged: 2018-09-20 08:58:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9483857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lassarina/pseuds/Lassarina
Summary: Ming loves the water.





	

As the edge of the setting sun slid below the roof of her palace, Ming set aside the petitions for property dispute she was supposed to be deciding tomorrow morning, and descended the stairs that led from her balcony to the little cove she claimed as her own. Most of Numara's beaches were open to all her citizens, to use and enjoy, but this one perfect cove, she had kept for herself. It was not that she thought herself above her citizens, but rather that her first captain of the guard had begged her ceaselessly until she acceded. Her price had been that while she would tolerate guards everywhere else in the nation, this cove was hers, and hers alone.

She kicked off her shoes at the bottom of the stairs, and flexed her bare toes in the silky green grass that formed a path through her gardens. The waves thrummed their endless rhythm, a sound so constant in Numara that she scarcely thought of it anymore, except when she stopped to do so.

Ming made time to pay attention to the waves. She had it to spare.

She walked down the path slowly, breathing deeply of the scents of tropical flowers and salt air. The summer breeze was pleasantly cool after the heat of the day, and the light slanted red as the sun sank lower, casting long dark shadows over her garden.

Numara's white beaches had sand as fine as the sugar that graced the Queen's table; the sand still held the sun's heat, enough to sting her feet. Ming didn't hurry; this sensation was part of her ritual, too. She crossed the expanse of sand until the cool water lapped at her toes.

She had always loved the water; part of what had fascinated her enough about Numara to stay here, to want to be its queen, was the vast stretch of water that sheltered and surrounded the island nation. The water had as many moods as the people; today was a clear day, and the brilliant crystal blue of afternoon was fading to indigo, since her cove faced west. She had seen it gray and furious, roiling beneath the winter sky, and eerie glassy green before a storm swept in to batter the islands. Morning saw it painted red and gold and orange by the rising sun. When she had built her palace, she set her airy bedchamber high enough to give her a view of the water in all directions. It was the first thing she saw in the morning, and the last thing at night.

Numara thrived on its fishing and the rich vegetation, fed by the rains that rolled in off the sea. Water was life in Numara—everywhere, truly, but nowhere else had she seen a place so connected to the beating heart of the world. She dug her toes into the thick, wet sand and let the water wash over her feet, a rhythm like breathing, like life.

Somewhere out there on the sea, Seth was sailing. Somewhere beyond the waves, Kaim was fighting, and Sarah was reading, and Gongora was experimenting. They all explored the world in their own ways. Ming had no wish to wander. Just as the ocean had its moods, so too did her land. She watched her people grow and change and learned so much about this world as she did; in exchange, she gave them a secure and stable government, one she liked to think was generous and kind.

The tide was rolling in; the water lapped at the middle of her shins, and Ming breathed deeply of the salt air. There was more work to do. The ocean would be here tomorrow—relentless, teeming with life, soothing, dangerous, and all its many faces. The only constant was that it changed.

As she turned back to her palace, she wondered—not for the first time—if it would change her, too.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt "water."


End file.
